3-D Printing, Now in Stainless Steel

Shapaeways, the 3-D printing shop, has added stainless steel to its lineup of materials, meaning you can now design spare parts for machines and have them made up and sent to you in the mail. Here’s how it works:

Stainless Steel printing is a completely new technology – stainless steel powder is deposited in thin layers, combined with a binding material, and built one layer at a time to the specifications of its designer. The final product is infused with bronze and oven-cured, and a variety of finish and color options are available.

Essentially, it’s like an inkjet printer, only instead of making a 2-D image by laying down ink line-by-line, it makes a 3-D object by laying down powdered metal one layer at a time. What could you use this for? Almost anything. The video shows a couple of ants on a Möbius Strip, but you could just as easily make low-stress parts for bikes and cars, or — well, come on, you can make anything. Have some imagination here. And add this to a 3-D scanner and you can duplicate just about anything, except, sadly, tea, Earl Grey, hot.